Vilsack has no experience or interest in mountains or trees. Maybe he'll talk cellulosic ethanol or biomass, but it will be up to the Undersecretary to run the new Chief of the Forest Service. So until we know who replaces Rey and Kimbell, all that can be said is that Vilsack's choice shows Obama feels USFS policy is pretty low priority. If that low priority means throwing a bone to the Left, which I think will happen, then it will be a sad day.

Give Vilsack a chance. He may not be a great fit to the coveted USFS but will possibly bring more sense to the farm programs of today. If the FS were managed the way it should be there would not be the controversies that is plaguing them to date. Lets hope the Dept of Ag will be more hands on style of management rather than a political fol-lie.

I read on a conspiracy forum that this guy has been bought by Monsanto and will pretty much make GMO food the only food.

Why dont one of you Obamabots get to the bottom of this and get back to us w/ the facts . I thinks its funny if its true.

Change ing your food. Oh yeah I forgot both Obama and him will,being from corn states , get the ethanol rolling. I heard thats real green too.??

Got change?

Dave, I hear your concerns about the Ag Secretary's lack of experience with mountains or trees, but most of the recent Ag Secretary's didn't have much experience with Forest Service issues either. This is just another example of where it makes no sense what-so-ever to have the Forest Service under the Dept of Agriculture v. Dept of Interior (unless, of course, one views trees on our National Forest lands as nothing more than a crop).

Quick on-line searchers for Vilsack and organic or sustainable ag show that many organic and sustainable ag farmers, ranchers, etc actively fought against Vilsack's nomination, especially right after the election when it looked like he was the front-runner. Below is some information from the Organic Consumer Association.

As someone who voted for, and supported, Obama I must say I'm very disappointed with his choice for both Ag Secretary and Interior Secretary. But then again, I've been saying all along that an Obama Administration represents a "small chance for change"...which at least is an upgrade from "no chance for change."

Six Reasons Why Obama Appointing Monsanto's Buddy, Former Iowa Governor Vilsack, for USDA Head is a Terrible Idea
Organic Consumers Association, November 12, 2008
http://www.organicconsumers.org

* Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack's support of genetically engineered pharmaceutical crops, especially pharmaceutical corn:
http://www.gene.ch/genet/2002/Oct/msg00057.html

* The biggest biotechnology industry group, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, named Vilsack Governor of the Year. He was also the founder and former chair of the Governor's Biotechnology Partnership.

* When Vilsack created the Iowa Values Fund, his first poster child of economic development potential was Trans Ova and their pursuit of cloning dairy cows.

* Vilsack was the origin of the seed pre-emption bill in 2005, which many people here in Iowa fought because it took away local government's possibility of ever having a regulation on seeds- where GE would be grown, having GE-free buffers, banning pharma corn locally, etc. Representative Sandy Greiner, the Republican sponsor of the bill, bragged on the House Floor that Vilsack put her up to it right after his state of the state address.

* Vilsack has a glowing reputation as being a schill for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto. Sustainable ag advocated across the country were spreading the word of Vilsack's history as he was attempting to appeal to voters in his presidential bid. An activist from the west coast even made this youtube animation about Vilsack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmoc4Qgcm4s

The airplane in this animation is a referral to the controversy that Vilsack often traveled in Monsanto's jet.

*Vilsack is an ardent support of corn and soy based biofuels, which use as much or more fossil energy to produce them as they generate, while driving up world food prices and literally starving the poor.

I agree that he isn't a great choice. His close links to Monsanto and lack of forest knowledge are a ble draw back. The important thing now will be to fill the UnderSecretary jobs with good people. There is about 1000 jobs total that need to be filled in USDA so plugging in people that aren't big business cronies will be important. If you have names of people send them to the transition team or to National Farmer's Union to forward on. A former staffer for NFU is on the team.

Hi guys, my names Tina and im completely new to this forum.

I hope that I'll learn and share a lot of interesting things.

Thanks,
Tina

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